. >> right before president obama sat down with cbs's scott pelley for an exclusive interview. he talked about the economy shrinking and the last quarter of 2012. >> i don't think the question is about raising rates. the question is if we can reduce the deficit, can we combine some spending cuts because there's still waste in government, can we reform our health care because we spend more than eany other country. there's ways to reduce health care costs. and can we close loopholes and deductions that folks that are well connected and have a lot of accountants and lawyers can take advantage of, can we close some of those loopholes. if you combine those things together, then we cannot only reduce our deficit but we can continue to invest in things like education and research and development that's going to help us grow. washington cannot continually operate under a cloud of crisis. that freezes up consumers, it gets businesses worried. we can't afford these self-inflicted wounds. and there's a way for us to resolve these budget problems in a responsible way through a balanced app